Herhold: A controversy swirls around the firing of a VMC physician

Dr. Dean Winslow boasts credentials that most physicians can only envy: Air Force flight surgeon, infectious disease expert, founder of an AIDS clinic and, since May 2012, the chair of the department of medicine at Valley Medical Center.

He has one other distinction that most people would prefer wasn't on a résumé. He was summarily fired last month from his VMC job for unexplained reasons. Now, he is at the center of a controversy expected to crest Tuesday before the Board of Supervisors.

More than 1,000 doctors, nurses and others have signed an online petition (http://goo.gl/24tzh0) noting that Winslow had recently spoken out against management decisions "that negatively impacted patient care.'' The petition asserted that he was canned for speaking freely.

This is combustible stuff, all the more so because the signers include some of the most eminent physicians who have practiced at VMC. A group of doctors and nurses is expected to argue on Winslow's behalf before the supervisors.

"We were stunned and confused by the manner in which this very gifted and inspiring colleague was terminated,'' wrote Dr. Bob Horowitz, the associate chief of primary care.

County Executive Jeff Smith insisted that the firing had nothing to do with free speech issues or any criticisms from Winslow, who worked in an at-will, or "unclassified'' job.

When I pushed Smith on whether Winslow had gotten adequate warning, or "due process,'' the county executive said personnel decisions were by nature private. But he said that did not mean a process was ignored.

I couldn't reach Winslow, who over the past seven years has brought 20 Iraqi children to the U.S. for treatment. But his firing comes against the context of big changes with the rollout of Obamacare.

The doctors I've talked with say Winslow objected to demands on VMC physicians to handle more patients while at the same time learning a new electronic records system.

"Dr. Winslow is a very candid person,'' said Dr. Alfredo Banuelos, VMC's retired chief medical officer. "He spoke frankly about concerns that a lot of other individuals share.''

My take? Having observed the county for a long time, it strikes me as improbable that anyone would be fired just for speaking out. I've seen county employees who have scorched the hierarchy with impunity.

That raises the possibility that Winslow has some other problem that we do not know about, something hidden by the circling-of-the-wagons behind the word "personnel.''

Yet Winslow's followers persuade me that we're owed more of an explanation -- that he was too good a doctor for too long to be fired so abruptly without a stated reason.

One point the signers of the petition made is that VMC needs to keep recruiting qualified doctors who would be appalled by the story.

"The irony of this whole debacle is that the very problem that Dr. Winslow was working so hard to prevent, the recent exodus of so many of VMC's finest primary care physicians to neighboring institutions, has happened to him,'' wrote Dr. Lawrence Crapo, VMC's chief of endocrinology.